WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION is Jewish? If you're an avid
follower of Jewish news, you know that the correct answer is
approximately 2
percent (at most). But if you don't live inside this alphabet soup
goldfish
bowl that makes up the organized Jewish world, your answer might be very
different.

Recently, I asked a veteran non-Jewish newspaperman what he thought the
correct figure was. Though this person knew the news business inside out
and
is far better informed than the vast majority of ordinary readers, his
answer
was that the figure must be at least 10 percent!

There are more than a couple of reasons for this common misconception
but
the
one that makes the most sense for me is the fact that the major news
media
often appear obsessed with Jewish topics and personalities.
The old expression "Jews are news" has never been more true than the
present.
Everything about us, good, bad or indifferent is invariably blown out of
proportion.

For example, tiny Israel has the fourth largest number of foreign news
correspondents stationed there (after Washington, London and Moscow) on
the
planet. That makes it the most reported and thus, almost by definition,
the
most misreported country in the world. Once you assimilate this fact,
everything that continues to drive friends of Israel crazy about the
media
falls into place. Thus, while media bias certainly plays a role in the
coverage of Israel at times, more often it is the disproportionate
attention
devoted to that country (often by reporters and editors who are flaming
ignoramuses about the history and politics of the Middle East) that is
at
fault.

Take, for example, a recent page one story in The New York Times about
the plight of Russian and Ukrainian women lured into lives of
prostitution in various places around
the
world. If you read the story carefully you would discover that this
infamous
racket is going on all around the world. But if you only read the lede
and
looked at the color picture on the front page, you would think this is a
strictly Israeli story.

Looked at from an Israeli context, this is an important news story whose
impact may force law enforcement agencies to take action to stop these
crimes.
But you have to wonder why the largest amount of space in this piece is
given
to little Israel when the same thing is going on in Germany, Turkey and
dozens
of other places.

For those with a knowledge of the history of 19th century anti-Semitic
propaganda, the idea that Jews are running the "White Slave Trade" is
nothing
new. Cartoon-like stereotypes of loathsome Jewish villains trading on
the
lost
virtue of gentile maidens was standard material for the Nazis and their
precursors. Just as today, there were plenty of Jewish pimps and
prostitutes
on the loose a hundred years ago, but it took a sick mind to imagine
that
the
Jews were running the world's oldest profession. The rising influence of
a
so-
called "Russian mafia" in Israel may well justify the Times focus on
Israel.
But the same can be said about other places too.
"Jews are news" remains the best explanation.

Another recent example of the phenomenon is the spate of front page wire
service stories appearing in the Hartford Courant, which has had
local
Jews
in an uproar. In particular were two pieces that were not breaking news
but
merely rehashing of old historical controversies which just happened to
cast
Israel in a bad light. One revisited the debate about revisionist
theories
about Israel's birth and highlighted one maverick Israeli historian's
fallacious contention that the Jews "stole" Israel from the Arabs.
Another
dug
up the 30-year-old controversy over whether the late former Chief Rabbi
of
Israel, Shlomo Goren, had suggested blowing up the Dome of the Rock on
the
Temple Mount in 1967.

I'll grant you that both are interesting yarns, but how do you justify
making
them the top news of the day when, in fact, there isn't anything new
about
either? Just how slow a news day does it have to be for either of these
to
make it onto the front page of a secular daily? Hartford may not be the
hub
of
the universe, but that dull, it isn't.

The answer again is "Jews are news," and if Israel gets an undeserved
black
eye because of uninformed editing, then it is just too bad.

Hot on the heels of all these stories is a related phenomenon: The
tendency
of
one portion of the Jewish community to, "blame Israel first," no matter
what
the issue is. That's why the controversy over a canceled lecture series
commemorating Israel's 50th birthday at the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington has been mishandled by many in the press.
The series, which was a concoction of the left-wing New Israel Fund, was
stacked with speakers who were fervent opponents of the current Israeli
government. There is nothing wrong with the NIF (which does some good
work
for
battered women and other commendable charities in Israel along with
support
for causes which are linked to a left-wing political agenda) holding a
lecture
series. But when such an imbalanced event is sponsored by a U.S.
government
agency, then those who don't share the NIF's politics (the majority of
Israelis as well as American Jews) are more than justified when they
protest.

Why should the only view of Israel heard at the Smithsonian be those of
its
left-wing Jewish critics? When the centrist ADL joined with the hawkish
Americans For a Safe Israel and the editorial column of The New York
Post in
opposing the forum as planned, the Smithsonian (which has lately
specialized
in revisionist history such as the Enola Gay exhibit, which focussed on
the
dropping of the Bomb on Japan without placing it in the historic context
of
Japanese atrocities and aggression) backed down and canceled the series.

So what did the NIF and its cheerleaders such as
The New York Times'
Anthony
Lewis do? They accused the NIF's critics of McCarthyism! Turning the
truth
on
its head, they said those who wanted balance at the Smithsonian were
trying
to
suppress speech. The truth is, it was the Left and the NIF that
attempted to suppress the ideas of those who opposed them.
It is the Left that is uninterested in an open fair debate.

This is a common practice in the American Jewish world, where liberals
predominate. Events billed as open forums on Israeli issues are often
stacked
decks with only token participation by non-Leftists. When challenged,
the
organizers quickly resort to the most vicious of libels.

So between an
uninformed, often biased press which thinks anything that happens in
Israel
is
hot news and a Leftist Jewish elite that wants to suppress opposing
views,
it
is not getting any easier to present Israel's story to America.

Media bias is just a small part of the battle for Israel, but anyone who
thinks that fight is over is kidding themselves.